The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution encouraging governments, schools, international organisations and technology companies to move beyond the widely used Mercator map when representing the relative sizes of countries and continents.
The “Correct the Map” resolution was adopted on 4 September by 164 votes to one, with six abstentions. It promotes the use of equal-area projections, particularly the 2018 Equal Earth projection, to provide a more proportionate representation of the world’s landmasses.
The resolution was driven by African states and supported by the African Union and the Bahamas. Its backers argue that the Mercator projection, developed in 1569 for navigation, visually enlarges regions farther from the Equator while making Africa and other equatorial regions appear smaller than their actual land area.
For travel businesses, destination marketers and tourism bodies, the issue carries implications for how places are presented in educational content, visual campaigns, visitor materials and digital platforms. Equal-area maps can offer a more balanced way to communicate the scale and geographical context of destinations, particularly across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The UN measure is non-binding and does not require a universal switch to a single map. It does not prohibit the Mercator projection, which remains suited to maritime and aviation navigation because of the way it represents direction and course.
Instead, the resolution calls for greater awareness of the limitations of flat-map projections and recommends Equal Earth or other equal-area options when comparative land size is important. It also encourages member states to update educational materials and engage with digital map providers on more accurate cartographic representation.
The vote reflects a wider push to reassess the maps that shape global perception. While the Earth cannot be flattened without some distortion, equal-area projections aim to preserve relative size more faithfully, even if they alter the familiar shapes of countries and continents.